


A Knack

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Multi, Pre-Star Wars: A New Hope, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:36:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: The model starship was sleek and bright, nothing Beru could identify as she turned it over in her hands. She looked around, into the sand beyond Shmi Skywalker’s memorial site, but saw no damned stubborn foolish former Jedi sneaking off.“The invitation to dinner still stands,” she called out, just in case, though she was met by nothing but the breeze.Sooner or later, Beru thought, she would get that fool Ben Kenobi to show himself.





	A Knack

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rain_sleet_snow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/gifts).



> For a kissing meme prompt, 'discreetly', from rain_sleet_snow, as ever this ship's greatest champion. <3

The model starship was sleek and bright, nothing Beru could identify as she turned it over in her hands. She looked around, into the sand beyond Shmi Skywalker’s memorial site, but saw no damned stubborn foolish former Jedi sneaking off.

“The invitation to dinner still stands,” she called out, just in case, though she was met by nothing but the breeze.

Sooner or later, Beru thought, she would get that fool Ben Kenobi to show himself.

-

Luke played happily with his new toy for the rest of the afternoon and had to be convinced to leave it aside for dinner. (Which, unsurprisingly, Ben Kenobi did not show up for.) When Beru settled him down for bed, it was with the ship clutched in his arms.

“Did you see him?” Owen asked as he lay with her in their bed, with an air of nonchalance that was nonetheless too sharp not to be curious.

“Would’ve told you if I had, wouldn’t I?” Beru pinched his waist when she could sense the beginnings of a sulk. “He loves Luke, you know. He spends hours and hours making those ships for him. I just think it would be nice if he got to see him once, that’s all.”

“He’s seen him fine.”

“A glimpse from the speeder into the shop in Anchorhead doesn’t count.”

“I won’t have him--”

“Corrupting Luke, dragging him into a war, teaching him foolish magic tricks, yes, I’ve heard it,” Beru said, rolling her eyes, though she knew the urge was childish. “I don’t want those things, either. But Ben is a sad, lonely hermit who loved Luke’s father and wants to love Luke. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.”

Owen sighed heavily. “A sad, lonely hermit with a lightsaber and a habit of getting Skywalkers killed.”

Beru smacked him. “I will get Ben to accept my dinner invitation, and you will be civil to him.”

After a prolonged moment of silence, Owen squeezed his arm around Beru’s waist and said, “You do have a knack for getting what you want.”

“Got you, didn’t I?” Beru said, their disagreement settling into affectionate teasing, and felt the press of Owen’s lips to the top of her head.

-

In the end, it was a matter of survival that got Ben Kenobi to accept Beru’s dinner invitation.

She had brought Luke shopping with her, and as they walked back out with their bags of supplies her gaze caught on the hooded figure walking towards them. She’d recognize that reddish beard anywhere.

Luke tugged her hand. “Aunt Beru, the wind.”

Startled, she looked away from Ben’s surprised expression and noted the uptick in the intensity of the wind, a certain precursor to a sandstorm. “Get in the speeder,” she told Luke, and waited for him to run off before hitching her bags up in her arms and striding purposefully to Ben.

“I’m sure you’ve lived here long enough to know a sandstorm’s coming,” she told him without ceremony. “You won’t make it home in time, but we’re not so far away. I have been trying to invite you to dinner.”

Ben shaded his eyes as he looked around. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“If you’d rather be locked in the shop for who knows how long with the rest of the locals who can’t make it to their homes, by all means.” Beru cradled the bags against her chest to free one arm, sweeping it to gesture towards the parked speeders. “I thought it would be kinder to extend my welcome.”

Ben hesitated.

“Come or don’t, but Luke and I are going.” Beru marched off to dump her purchases into the back and slide in to the driver’s seat. She suppressed a smile as she saw Ben climb onto his eopie to follow them.

Luke fixed wide eyes on her. “Is Ben coming to dinner?”

“Yes, Luke,” Beru said as she took them over the sands. “Yes, he is.”

-

Their arrival back home was close enough that Owen merely pushed them all inside, tight lines pulling at the corners of his mouth, waving Ben in with them just the same, with barely a glance. The eopie was sheltered within the shed with the speeder.

“Ben’s having dinner with us,” Luke volunteered cheerfully, as Beru brushed sand out of his hair.

Owen and Ben were eyeing each other up. Ben said, “I hope it isn’t an inconvenience.”

After a long, heavy pause, Owen said, “Beru’s been planning this for ages. Suppose it’s best we get it out of the way.” Then he stalked off, and Ben blinked at Beru.

“Your cloak’s full of sand,” she said. “Take it off.”

With one more slightly astonished slow blink, Ben complied.

Beru dragged Luke off to help with dinner.

-

The meal was less awkward than it could have been. Owen was, actually, to his credit, civil, and Ben, though reserved, was nevertheless obviously practiced at polite conversation. Mostly Luke kept the whole thing chugging along in good humor, with his endless chattering and enthusiasm.

After they cleaned up, Luke convinced Ben to come along to his room, whereupon he regaled the poor man with details of the vaporator Owen had been teaching him to mend and the little broken droid he’d found that he was trying to repair. As Beru watched from the doorway, Luke gathered Ben up into his games of imagination, swooping the toy starships that she knew Ben had built through the air. She smiled a little, both at Ben so clearly overwhelmed by the whirlwind of Luke and at the way he seemed so gratified by Luke’s affection for the models.

Beru had never told Luke where they came from. Perhaps she should.

“Bedtime,” Owen said from just behind Beru’s shoulder, grabbing the attention of the room’s occupants.

Ben scrambled to his feet, looking unsure as to whether he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t, while Luke put up his habitual protest.

Within fifteen minutes, Luke was settled in bed and Beru had taken Ben back out to the table, offering a drink, Owen following.  

“He seems happy,” Ben said, a cup of whiskey between his hands, the whiskey Beru saved for special occasions. She figured getting Ben in her house was special enough.

“He’s a good boy,” Beru agreed, looking to Owen. “A bit of a troublemaker, but sweet about it.”

Owen hesitated. “He likes the ships. Will you be making another?”

A flush rose in Ben’s cheeks but he seemed gratified all the same. Beru wondered if he hadn’t realized Owen knew where they came from. “An AT-AT next, I thought. For variety.”

Owen nodded, and Beru smiled to herself.

Getting Ben here again would be easier, she thought, than this first time.

-

It was easier. In a few weeks Beru took Luke with her to sell some of their hydroponic vegetables and came home with Ben following their speeder on his eopie. Owen rolled his eyes but welcomed him; Luke chattered non-stop through dinner.

The next month Luke managed to get himself into trouble playing with the older Darklighter boy, far too eager to find a Krayt dragon, and it was Ben who returned them, dirty and shamefaced but unharmed. Beru was so busy shouting at and Luke and wiping smudges off his face that Ben slipped away unnoticed.

She took the speeder on her own and left a basket of sweet buns at his door. It had been Owen’s suggestion, gruff, his face turned away, and he had flushed red when Beru kissed his face.

A while after that, Ben returned the basket with the promised model AT-AT nestled inside. Beru smiled at him and gestured him inside; Ben came uncertainly but without protest.

Luke was playing in the courtyard; his face brightened when he caught sight of Ben. He came running so quickly that he skidded.

Beru tutted and warned him about ripping holes in the knees of his pants again after she had only just patched them. Luke barely took notice.

Ben offered the AT-AT gravely.

Luke’s blue eyes widened. “Are you the one who makes them?”

Shrugging, Ben said, “Keeps my hands busy.”

Luke flung his arms around Ben, the AT-AT clutched in one small hand.

Ben blinked, holding his hands just away from Luke, hovering, before he unsurely rested one on Luke’s blond head and the other on his shoulder.

Beru tried very hard not to laugh. She largely succeeded.

“Want to play?” Luke asked, and tugged Ben away with him, clearly not actually needing an answer. Ben submitted, bemused and probably overwhelmed.

“Dinner’s in an hour, you can set the table, Luke,” Beru called after them before exiting to go find Owen.

He was just finishing a repair to the fence, nearby. He wiped his hands on his pants and then brushed his sleeve across his forehead.

“We have a guest,” Beru told him.

“I figured as much. Saw him coming.”

“He’s growing on you.”

Owen’s expression wavered, like he was thinking about protesting and considering his chances of getting away with it. He must have landed on ‘not good’ because he said, “Like a mold, maybe. The persistent ones that grow on the vaporators.”

Beru laughed and helped him clean up before walking back with him inside.

She and Owen prepared dinner and she shouted for Luke to remember to set the table; Ben came trailing after him to assist. Beru thought about insisting he sit down but it was a little bit sweet, watching him dutifully place plates and utensils at Luke’s direction.

Dinner with Ben felt comfortable now, like he was a welcome friend, almost a part of the family. In a way, he was; he had certainly been as good as family to Anakin Skywalker, and he loved Luke.

Owen feared that what Ben had brought to Anakin would come to Luke as well; Beru thought, somehow, that letting Luke spend time with Ben, and getting to know him themselves, had helped abate those fears. Ben wanted to keep Luke safe, and that was all Beru and Owen had ever wanted.

What would happen when Luke was older, well, Beru figured there was time before they needed to fixate on that worry.

They convinced Ben to stay after dinner, while Luke gathered his toys around himself and played games. They didn’t even talk, not much; Beru and Owen had few books but what they had Ben apparently found fascinating. Beru was sewing tanned krayt dragon leather into a jacket while Owen sharpened a knife.

Beru watched Ben’s lip silently form the words he was reading, as though sounding out a particularly interesting – or particularly galling – bit of the book. She looked up and met Owen’s eyes; there was fondness there, and not only for her. She put down her sewing and moved to kiss Owen’s cheek before perching onto the arm of the chair Ben was sitting in.

He blinked at her.

Beru touched her fingers to his arm and suggested, “That hovel you live in is unacceptable. Your presence here, on the other hand, is always entirely welcome.” To enforce her point, she leaned down to kiss him, quickly and discreetly, so that Luke would not even have noticed, had he not been too busy enacting a miniature battle.

Ben’s cheeks were flushed. Owen chuckled and said, “Beru always gets what she wants. It’s best you know that.”

“It’s true,” Luke chimed in, before making ‘pew, pew’ noises as he brought his AT-AT in to fire upon a starfighter.

“I,” Ben started, before trailing off. He watched Owen place the knife down to stand behind his chair, one hand on Beru’s shoulder and the other high on Ben’s back, at his neck, squeezing a little.

“Yes,” Ben said, still flushed, but with a smile threatening to break out. “I suppose it must be.”

It was, Beru thought with satisfaction.


End file.
